Football

Super Bowl rivalry stirs memories for Tech's Watson Brown

Jan 23, 2013

Editor's note: With a Super Bowl on the horizon that will
feature two brothers coaching on opposite sidelines, Chattanooga
Times-Free Press writer David Paschall contacted Tech coach Watson
Brown (left in photo) about his memories of coaching against his
brother, current Texas head coach Mack Brown (right in photo). The
following story appeared in the Chattanooga Times Free
Press:

Two former Southeastern Conference football coaches have done
the brother-versus-brother thing, and it's an experience they could
have lived without.

As soon as the Super Bowl XLVII matchup between Jim Harbaugh's
San Francisco 49ers and John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens became
official Sunday evening, Vince Dooley and Watson Brown couldn't
help but recall when they had to face their siblings. Dooley
coached Georgia to a 1971 Gator Bowl win over North Carolina, which
was guided by younger brother Bill, but Brown wasn't as
fortunate.

His Vanderbilt Commodores lost during the 1986 and '87 seasons
to the Tulane Green Wave, who were coached by younger brother
Mack.

"Neither one of us liked it, and we said we would never do it
again," Watson Brown said Tuesday. "Mack isn't just my brother but
my closest friend in the coaching profession, and we couldn't talk
much those two years. Being out there with him before the game and
shaking hands after the game were hard for me."

Brown, who later coached at UAB and is now at Tennessee Tech,
knew Tulane was on the schedule for two years when he took the
Vanderbilt job in 1986. His brother used the 35-17 and 27-17 wins
over the Commodores to help land a job at North Carolina, where he
worked for a decade before leaving for Texas, where he won the 2005
national championship.

The two Browns have never coached together, but when Vince
Dooley took over at Georgia in 1964, he hired his brother as
offensive coordinator. After three seasons, the younger Dooley left
for UNC, and there was no shortage of sibling stories in the month
leading up to their lone career collision.

"I read where my brother said that his favorite toy growing up
was a fire truck and that I had taken it from him and that he had
always been mad about it," Vince Dooley said. "After the banquet
the day before the game, I quoted what he had said. I had bought a
little fire truck, and I told him that I would give the fire truck
back to him right now."

Following Georgia's 7-3 triumph in which Jimmy Poulos rushed for
161 yards and scored the touchdown on a 25-yard run in the third
quarter, the Dooleys met at midfield.

"When it's over and you win, you feel good, but you have some
empathy for the other coach," Vince said. "When you walk out there
and see that it's your brother, you have more empathy than normal
for the other coach. It was better him than me, though, because
when you get down to it, it's competition."

The awkwardness of the dueling Dooleys in Jacksonville continued
when the teams got back to the hotel. Dooley's wife, Barbara, was
irate that his sister, Rosezella, had been pulling for the Tar
Heels.

"Billy was always the baby of the family, so I understood why my
sister would be pulling for him," Vince said. "My wife didn't
understand at all. It was a bad experience, and we hoped it would
never have to happen again."

Watson Brown said nobody handled his two sibling situations
better than his grandfather, Eddie Watson, who coached for more
than three decades at Putnam County High School. Watson wore a
two-billed hat with a Vanderbilt logo and a Tulane logo, shifting
it depending on who had the ball.

This is not the first meeting between the Harbaughs -- the
Ravens defeated the 49ers 16-6 on Thanksgiving night in 2011 -- and
Brown believes the impending clash in New Orleans will be easier
for them than the two he and his brother endured.

"I think the magnitude of this game will help," Brown said.
"They have so much at stake that they probably don't have time to
think about it being brother-brother, and this will be quicker
compared to having a whole season to think about it. This one is
two weeks and all of a sudden here it is."

Vince Dooley, ever the historian, noted that the Harbaughs will
have to square off several more times before catching Bump and Pete
Elliott. Bump guided Michigan and Pete led Illinois in seven
head-to-head meetings from 1960 to '66.

"Going through that would have to be the worst of them all,"
Dooley said.